According to urban legend, Twinkies can survive a nuclear holocaust but that’s only if you can find them. Hostess snacks are flying off the shelves and being sold for many times their retail price on sites like Amazon. That’s because Hostess Brands Inc. is going out business. The pastry maker rose during the Great Depression but it could not survive an extended strike by union workers, who were unwilling to make concessions.

“Our members decided they were not going to take any more abuse from a company they have given so much to for so many years,” said Frank Hurt, president of the bakers’ union. “They decided that they were not going to agree to another round of outrageous wage and benefit cuts and give up their pension only to see yet another management team fail and Wall Street vulture capitalists and ‘restructuring specialists’ walk away with untold millions of dollars.”

They’ve not only cost themselves their own jobs but also the rest of the company’s 18,500 workers. It’s the kind of greed famously featured in the classic Hostess comic book ads, in which the villain wants all the cakes for himself.